Scott The reflected gleam off the hull you could see the texture variation in the hull as the reflected light traveled down the hull in your 2006 work. I wish I could upload the video to show you the difference.

Okay, add me to the "just a little too much ambient lighting on the ship" crew, but I definitely don't think it needs to be as dark as ENT, either. I do think it could use stronger shadows, which might be why it seems to bright - the color of the ship is too even, with not enough contrast.

That being said, however, I think the clip looks great, and I have to say I really like the opening credits! This is the first time when I haven't thought it looked like Enterprise was 'sliding' across the screen, but actually shooting from the distance and past the camera; good choice to break from the tendency to 'recreate' the credits and to actually improve upon them; I especially like the last shot with De Kelley's credit. Thanks, Prof!

BTW, I also have to add that, looking back at your previous work, I prefer the Scene 13a, where Kirk crosses the main viewscreen, in which you had the planetary rubble still glowing from its destruction; it made it seem more immediate and terrifying, that the rock was still superheated from the weapon. But the final version looks great, too (just without the scan lines - I like to think their viewscreen technology has improved over a Sony Trinitron ).

Scott The reflected gleam off the hull you could see the texture variation in the hull as the reflected light traveled down the hull in your 2006 work. I wish I could upload the video to show you the difference.

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Wow, I know exactly what you're talking about and couldn't disagree more... to my eye, those shots looks MORE fake. Different strokes, I guess

^^^ Well, on that score I agree with you on a couple of scenes where the lighting could have been better and the Enterprise is still too dark/flatly lit. Those are just going to have to wait though... I need to move on and plow through the rest of the episode or this thing will never be finished. If I still have any energy and sanity remaining come October (projected finish line), I'll come back and revisit some of the less successful scenes. Thanks for the feedback!

The doomsday machine could blow a planet up with one shot... the Constellation and Enterprise absorbed multiple shots from this ship...

Does that mean the Constitution ship could absorb more damage than a planet?

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CuttingEdge, I don't think the planet killer could destroy a planet with one shot ... from the dialog, it was suggested the ship sliced chunks out of planets, so I assume it hung over a planet, hitting it with that beam over and over until the planet was rubble. Remember, the stranded crew called Decker, begged him to rescue them from the planet's surface, but he was helpless.

I also suspect that the beam fired by the machine was too big to hit a starship with its full force. The planet killer's beam was intended to carve up planets, not starships, and most of the weapon's energy -- even on a direct hit -- simply flashes past harmlessly.

The doomsday machine could blow a planet up with one shot... the Constellation and Enterprise absorbed multiple shots from this ship...

Does that mean the Constitution ship could absorb more damage than a planet?

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Well planets don't have shields, and we get the impression it took it a while to cut a planet up into bite-sized chunks... it's not a one-shot deal like the Death Star vs Alderaan. And I always assumed it tuned the attack to the target.

What software did you use to track your CGI on the Enterprise viewscreen? Or did you roto-scope it by hand?

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Andersson SynthEyes was used to track the live action footage motion so that the viewscreen insert would swivel correctly, and Adobe After Effects 7.0 was used for the rotoscoping... and all 63 frames were manually rotoscoped. My right hand was balled into a cramped fist at the end of that little chore, lemme tell ya.

Jumping back to the micro-topic on the Constellation's damage, maybe the PK took "samples" of the ship in order to determine the ships suitability for digestion or processing, and decided it wasn't worth the effort, and simply disabled it?

As for the video itself, my only real problem is the scan lines on the viewer. Blegh.

I'm late, but I wanted to say I like the way the ship is brightly lit. I always end up lighting mine really bright... Lately, I think there is too much of a 'dark' look in sci-fi shows, and in the fan artwork.

Jumping back to the micro-topic on the Constellation's damage, maybe the PK took "samples" of the ship in order to determine the ships suitability for digestion or processing, and decided it wasn't worth the effort, and simply disabled it?

As for the video itself, my only real problem is the scan lines on the viewer. Blegh.

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or knew correctly trying to digest something like that would be a bad bad
thing.

Very nice!
I'll have to dig through my archives and compare it to your earlier passes. I seem to remember glowing asteroids and arcing on Constellation wreck.
Did you tone those down to be more in-line with 60's effects?
I just compared your shots to the Remastered ep & I have to say it... I'll take yours.

Very nice!
I seem to remember glowing asteroids and arcing on Constellation wreck.
Did you tone those down to be more in-line with 60's effects?

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The arcing is still there; it's just hard to see in the shots you've seen so far. The asteroids are completely different though. The glowy 'roids used clumped hypervoxel particles, but these are actual asteroid meshes with modeled geometry. There are ten different base asteroid models that are cloned several hundred times each per scene, scaled at random values in the X/Y/Z axes, scattered in a roughly spherical volume, and keyframed with random heading/bank/pitch and X/Y/Z movement to depict the remnants of Systems L-370 and 374. Throw in some hypervoxel dust clouds in the background and voila!... instant planetary destruction.

I never was very happy with the look of the glowy asteroids. I suppose the idea was cool enough, but in practice they looked too samey-same and distracted the attention of the viewer from the stars of the show, the Enterprise and Constellation (not to mention the Special Guest Villain, the Cornucopia of Doom).